Decades ago, the late ecological economist Herman Daly named two rules for creating sustainability: Don't take from the Earth faster than it can replenish; and don't waste faster than it can absorb.
As we aim for sustainability today, could we include these rules?
WHO DECIDES WHAT'S SUSTAINABLE-- AND BY WHAT CRITERIA?
Who should have authority to approve or deny proposals to build new wind, solar and battery facilities? State regulators? Local governments? Some combination of the two? What criteria should anyone use to approve or deny a pemit to build a facility?
Massachusetts, Michigan and other states have passed or nearly passed legislation that strips local control over the siting and permitting of industrial solar PVs, wind turbines, large-scale battery storage and utility transmission and distribution infrastructure. The Supreme Court's 2024 Chevron decision cements the idea that government agencies have no authority to monitor or enforce damages to ecosystems or public health caused by manufacturing, operating or discarding electrical power, telecom infrastructure or digital devices. The public therefore must research consequences of manufacturing and digitalization, live with these consequences, clarify what choices are within its control.
Meanwhile, massive, often unrecognized problems abound:
SOLAR PVs
According to a report by Sheffield Hallam University, "almost the entire global solar panel industry is implicated in the forced labor of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples" who crush quartz rocks and work in coal-fueled furnaces to produce polysilicon for solar panels. Investors nor governments adequately address Uyghur forced labour risks in the renewable energy sector.
In Slavery Poisons Solar Industry's Supply Chains, Miles Pollard reports that roughly 80% of solar components are manufactured in China using slave labor.
European Parliament resolutions aim to curtail forced labor in China to make solar PVs. The 2021 U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act expanded the mandate that all U.S. companies importing silicon from Xinjiang confirm that supply chains are free of forced labor. The 2021 US Withhold Release Order prevented imports containing silicon from Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. Ltd and its subsidiaries from entering the U.S. until importing companies could prove they were not made with forced labor.
Making silicon (for solar panel safers or transistors) is like working in a volcano. Every 50,000 tons of silicon produce 500,000 tons of CO2. Making solar panels burns trees and coal. The panels are mounted on cement. Producing 1 kg of cement emits 0.5 - 0.9 kg of carbon dioxide, accounting for 5% - 7% of global carbon emissions.
Solar PVs also use copper, aluminum, boron, phosphorous, PFAs and much more. Since recycling solar panels is not feasible or economical, expect an avalanche of solar panels at the landfill near you. Given that solar facility waste is hazardous and therefore costly to dispose of, will county commissioners require corporations who build solar facilities to post a bond-- in the event that they go bankrupt-- so that counties are not left with the expenses of solar disposal?
The Aratina Solar Project in Kern County CA planned to destroy 4,287 five-hundred-year-old Joshua trees in June, 2024 to power 93,000 homes (some say 180,000 homes) with "clean" (solar PV) energy. Has the "renewable" energy corporation cut down the trees?? I can't find the answer.
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